Penn Badgley says the blame for fans being attracted to Jeffrey Dahmer is ‘on Netflix’
Penn Badgley has shared his perspective on viewers having crushes on serial killers, saying that the blame for people finding Jeffrey Dahmer attractive is “on Netflix”.
The actor plays stalker and serial killer Joe Goldberg on the streaming service’s hit thriller, You.
(You can find The Independent’s review of the first half of season four here.)
The popularity of You, as well as the dramatisations of the stories of real-life killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy in recent years, has coincided with some viewers expressing attraction to these violent figures.
In a recent interview promoting You’s fourth season, Badgley was asked about the message he’d send to “people who are finding themselves attracted to serial killers”.
He replied: “You need to look at that, inside.”
Continuing his point in a video on Entertainment Tonight’s TikTok account, the Gossip Girl star reasoned: “Now, to be fair, with our show, you’re meant to fall in love with him. That’s on us.
“Ted Bundy? That’s on you! Jeffrey Dahmer, that is on- that is on Netflix. That is squarely on the shoulders of Netflix.”
Zac Efron played Bundy in the 2019 film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, while Evan Peters won a Golden Globe for his work in last year’s mini-series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
“I don’t have answers at this point,” Badgley added. “I do, but they’re long. Yeah, it’s weird man.”
The Independent has reached out to a representative for Penn Badgley for comment.
Badgley has previously voiced his unease about viewers finding his murderous character attractive, writing on Twitter in 2021: “You’re supposed to see past my face to the crazy s***!”
He also recently revealed that he asked for a reduction in the number of intimate scenes for Joe.
So far, his character has engaged in several sexual scenarios with various partners, including a botched foursome between his wife Love (Victoria Pedretti) and a local influencer couple in season three.
On an episode of his podcast, Podcrushed, Badgley said of filming intimate scenes: “It got to a point where [I thought], ‘I don’t want to do that,’ so I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero.’”
You is currently streaming on Netflix.
